Due to the situation in Ukraine, numerous countries and institutions worldwide are imposing a growing list of sanctions against Russia and Belarus, targeting both companies and individuals. New sanctions are being announced almost daily. The hope is that sanctions will end hostilities. For sanctions to work, however, it is extremely important that they are respected. Parties who ignore sanctions undermine the sanctions regime and reduce its impact on the conflict.
Steering clear
As a company, the last thing you want to do is violate sanctions. Not just on ethical grounds, but also because doing so can lead to massive fines and reputational damage. But with wave after wave of sanctions hitting the international markets, how do you make sure you avoid doing business with sanctioned companies and individuals? In navigating these choppy waters, you certainly can’t afford to make mistakes.
So what do you do? Of course, the latest sanctions lists are available online, and you can check them manually for the names of your clients. How often then? Daily? Will you still have time to get on with your work?
Technology to the rescue
This is where technology comes in. There are compliance screening tools that incorporate sanctions lists. But do they have the latest versions of all of them? Because that is the assurance you need. Moreover, these tools still require you to screen your clients again every time they update their lists. But there’s one tool in the market that’s different: Pascal.
What makes Pascal different?
Pascal is a unique holistic and intuitive compliance and risk decision support platform developed by data analytics company Vartion. Using Vartion’s powerful search engine and artificial intelligence techniques, Pascal is designed to do more in less time and to discover hits and/or patterns in:
• Global Sanction Lists
• Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) Lists
• Global News data
• Global Company data
Regarding sanctions, Pascal contains all the relevant lists and updates them almost in real time. So the information you get on your clients is the most reliable in the market. What’s more, Pascal has a 24/7 monitoring function, so once you have screened your clients a first time, you never have to do it again. Pascal keeps track of the situation around your client and alerts you of any changes.
We asked Vartion data scientist Mažena Zachaževska what extra measures they are taking to keep Pascal up to date on the latest sanctions. “Our database is constantly growing with data scraped automatically from a range of sources, including the latest sanctions lists. You can trust us every day of the year, even when there’s no war going on. Due to the high impact of sanctions, high-priority sanction lists are updated not just daily, but on an hourly basis. Our monitoring capabilities ensure we’re alerted to any changes in real time. This means Pascal users can rest assured that they’re not unknowingly violating sanctions.”
Free sanctions screening
Vartion, eager to contribute to a peaceful solution and to support the business community in these turbulent times, is offering free access to Pascal’s sanctions screening module. Do you know for sure you are not violating Russian sanctions – or any other sanctions? With Pascal, it will take you no more than a few seconds to find out. Try it here.